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May. 11, 2014 | 09:42 AM

Boko Haram militants blow up second bridge, abduct wife, 2 kids

Women attend a rally calling on the Government to rescue the school girls kidnapped from the Chibok Government secondary school, in Abuja, Nigeria, Saturday May 10, 2014. The president of Nigeria for weeks refused international help to search for more than 300 girls abducted from a school by Islamic extremists, one in a series of missteps that have led to growing international outrage against the government. The waiting has left parents in agony, especially since they fear some of their daughter

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YOLA, NigeriaL Islamic extremists blew up a bridge, killed an unknown number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer in northeast Nigeria, residents said Saturday amid mounting condemnation by Muslims of the Boko Haram network that abducted more than 300 schoolgirls nearly a month ago.

British security experts arrived Friday to join Nigerian and American forces, and Britain said its aim is not only to help in the crisis over the girls but to defeat Nigeria's homegrown Boko Haram terrorist network.

It called on Boko Haram to immediately release the girls, saying that threats to sell them into slavery are against Islamic Shariah law. Boko Haram has said it wants to enforce Shariah law across the entire country though Nigeria's population of 170 million is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims.

The Boko Haram terrorist network has said that its abductions of family members of Nigerian officials is a tit-for-tat measure since Nigeria's military and police often detain the spouses and children of wanted suspects, holding them hostage until the suspect surrenders.

Boko Haram has staged many attacks in northeastern Nigeria over the years, a campaign of bombings and massacres that has intensified despite a strong military offensive.